European Commission has given Italian officials until May 19 to respond to its request for more information on the €300 million bridge loan the outgoing government awarded Alitalia last month ( ATWOnline, April 30). Meanwhile, speculation continues on possible interest in AZ, including from Air One and Lufthansa.
EDS and Microsoft will team up under a comprehensive eight-year alliance being announced today that calls for EDS to use "selected Microsoft tools in the modernization and operation" of EDS's airline solutions including reservations, flight planning, flight operations and "service oriented architecture products."
Malaysia Airlines is offering 1 million free domestic fares this month to promote its new Everyday Low Fares program, which MD and CEO Idris Jala said "will redefine the rules in the travel industry" if successful. MAS's effort to compete against low-fare giant AirAsia will feature nonrefundable one-way fares of MYR76 ($24) and MYR120 between East and West Malaysia excluding airport taxes and surcharges and will be available online at least 30 days prior to departure. Jala said there will be no loss in revenue, as the fares represent 30% of surplus seats that otherwise would go unsold.
SriLankan Engineering said it is conducting mandatory CFM56 modifications at its shop at Bandaranaike International for SriLankan Airlines' fleet of A340s. Work includes upgrades to strengthen the integrity of the C duct.
IATA reported a 5.8% year-over-year increase in March international traffic and said that the slowing growth "only tells a part of the story." DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani warned that "astronomical oil prices are hitting hard and the buffer of an expanding economy has disappeared. The fortunes of the industry have taken a major turn for the worse." March figures were impacted positively by the shift in the Easter holiday, which fell in April in 2007. Adjusting for the change, traffic rose only 4%. Capacity grew 6%, lowering March load factor to 77.7%.
Boeing completed carbon brake testing for its 737NG and plans to submit the results to US FAA for certification during the second quarter. Brakes are manufactured by Messier-Bugatti. Production entry is slated for the third quarter. Aircraft currently in service will be offered a retrofit program.
JetBlue Airways named former British Airways Executive VP-The Americas Robin Hayes as executive VP and chief commercial officer. He will be responsible for revenue, network, sales and marketing strategy.
Continental Airlines reported an estimated 3%-4% year-over-year increase in consolidated April RASM. It flew 7.84 billion consolidated RPMs during the month, down 0.2% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 3.4% to 9.86 billion ASMs, dropping load factor 2.9 points to 79.4%.
Alitalia Group said its net debt at the close of the first quarter was €1.35 billion ($2.1 billion), a 1.1% reduction from the figure on Feb. 29. It had €180 million in cash-in-hand and short-term financial credits.
ARINC said it will offer its AirPlan enRoute technology to selected airlines this summer under an agreement with ATH Group. Based on the Attila arrival management system, the technology is expected to save fuel and reduce delays by streamlining arrival times of incoming flights.
American Airlines and US FAA turned in reports to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters Friday regarding last month's disruptive grounding of AA MD-80s, and the carrier reportedly detailed an inconsistent oversight response by FAA including discord between the agency's Washington headquarters and a Dallas area field office.
A J Walter Aviation won associate membership in IATP, gaining access to international spares distribution from hubs in London, Singapore, Prague and Dubai.
AirTran Airways parent AirTran holdings yesterday announced the initial closing of concurrent offerings of 5.5% convertible senior notes due 2015 and common stock and said the initiatives netted proceeds of approximately $140.3 million. Sale of an additional 2.3 million shares of common as part of an overallotment option is set to close today.
Alteon Training won CASA approval as MTRO under new Civil Aviation Order 100.66 aligning Australian maintenance training regulations with European regulations. Approval affects the 737NG family. The 777 and 787 are slated for approval later this year.
MAXjet Airways, the all-business-class carrier that shut down in December ( ATWOnline, Jan. 3), is operating as a "luxury" charter service and is in the process of being acquired by NCA Sports Group, it announced on its website. It will continue charter operations under the new ownership.
US Senate, which earlier this week appeared on the verge of finally passing a long-stalled FAA reauthorization bill, failed to agree on both procedural rules for the proposed legislation's floor debate and whether amendments regarding airline pension plans should be included. Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) thought they had reached a compromise earlier in the week on funding FAA operations.
Goodrich was selected by Pratt & Whitney to be the exclusive provider of the complete nacelle systems for the Geared Turbofan on both the Mitsubishi Regional Jet and CSeries. Goodrich said the contract is expected to generate more than $5 billion in original equipment and aftermarket revenue in the 25 years following EIS. "The Goodrich nacelle system on the Geared Turbofan demonstrator engine is performing very well and we look forward to flight testing the complete propulsion system later this year," Pratt VP-Next Generation Product Family Bob Saia said.
AerCap Holdings subsidiary AeroTurbine will purchase British Airways' entire stock of wheels and brakes for 737, 757, 767, 777 and 747-400 aircraft under a 10-year component lease deal announced in April. Contract specifies that AeroTurbine lease back the stock to BA for a 6- to 10-year period in accordance with BA's fleet renewal plans.
THE ASIA/PACIFIC REGION'S RESPONSE to the emerging and sometimes heated debate on aviation's role in contributing to climate change is divided, reflecting the vast cultural and socioeconomic differences among nations that collectively are home to a third of the world's human population and 26% of its GDP.
CAE recently broadened the scope of its pilot provisioning initiative by signing contracts with Jazeera Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and Wizz Air to source, recruit and train more than 600 candidate pilots over a four-year period. "I think it's now widely accepted that there is a shortage of qualified crewmembers to transport and fly commercial airplanes," Innovation and Civil Training & Services Group President Jeff Roberts tells Airline Procurement. "The good news is that it's certainly not a demand question. The issue is on the supply side."
MOST, IF NOT ALL, GLOBAL NETWORK AIRLINES' stated aim is to increase their share of premium traffic. Few have been as creative as has Lufthansa at developing an array of services aimed at achieving this goal. To do so it has looked beyond the conventional aircraft tube to the entire travel experience. Examples include its dedicated First Class Terminal at Frankfurt and the transatlantic all-business-class service from Frankfurt to Newark operated on its behalf by PrivatAir of Switzerland using ACJs and BBJs.
BARACK OBAMA AND HILLARY Clinton may be debating the merits of NAFTA, the continually controversial North American Free Trade Agreement, but such is not the case at Continental Airlines and American Airlines.
AFTER A DECADE OF robust growth and financial success,US regional airlines are facing a challenging future as they deal with aging fleets of 50-seat jets that are increasingly expensive to operate at today's record fuel prices, pilot shortages, potential consolidation of their mainline partners and slowing demand for their services. Last year, mainline domestic RPM growth outpaced regional carrier growth for the first time since 1995, according to FAA's "Aerospace Forecast 2008-2025." Mainline domestic ASMs grew 1.8% against a 0.5% rise in regional ASMs.
